Thursday, September 30, 2010

The latest version introduced automatic scaling of map graphics on high resolution handsets. I thought this was a good feature to add since I had received some feedback that it was hard to play on high resolution handsets. Apparently a lot of people did not agree with this... I've received a bunch of e-mails about it so I decided I had to bring back the scaling option to the menu. I have moved all settings to a separate sub-menu, and you will now be able to access tile scaling (Android only), popup toggling, keybindings and language settings in there.

In this version some monsters may be generated asleep. This means that you have a chance to sneak past them or simply move up close and whack them on the head! I will add a lot more features around the new sleep status. Spells that will make monsters fall asleep, backstabbing of sleeping monsters and so on

Rangers should also rejoice as I've upped the chance of finding a better bow and also added an Elven Bow and a Crossbow to the ranged arsenal.

NEW FEATURES

Added Elven Bow. Low weight, high damage.

Added Crossbow. High weight, very high damage.

Monsters can be generated asleep

Added a settings menu and moved key bindings and language settings there

Sunday, September 26, 2010

I guess last release didn't really solve all the issues... I did a bit of coding today, and with the use of some autoplay/bot magic I nailed another recently introduced bug caused by monster falling through trap doors. I also made a stab at resizing the UI on highres Android handsets. I've only tried this on an emulator as I don't have a WVGA handset myself. Please let me know how well it works out for you.

CHANGES

Android - Graphics is scaled at higher resolutions

BUG FIXES

Trapdoors caused unwanted behaviour when a monster fell through it (nullpointers)

Saturday, September 25, 2010

The AARP release introduced quite a lot of bugs due to all the localization support being added to the release. I have now managed to iron out most (all?) of the bugs introduced in the latest release. I'd like to thank everyone who sent me feedback and bug reports!

I also managed to find a fix a really nasty bug which has been in there for quite some time. Sometimes you came across map cells which seemed empty but was not passable ("The stone floor is in the way"). This was actually caused by something as unlikely as the code that handled the Stun effect.

CHANGES

Gold does not count towards the final score as much as it did before

Android - Increased font size for the unit frame

Unit frames have been moved to the bottom of the screen to stop them from being "jumpy" (when they followed the height of the messagebox)

Chance of the merchant having better gear is increased with player level

BUG FIXES

A lot of typos as a result of the translation support being added in the 1.4.0

Buy All and Sell All options did not work after the translation support being added

Monday, September 20, 2010

I forgot to mention in my previous release post that the new version also features named mini-bosses. You will now be able to encounter beefed up versions of existing monsters. These mini-bosses will have randomly generated names such as 'Vilefang' the Ginat Spider and 'Lûgdûsh' the Orc.

Wow, with the least possible margin I managed to get a new Dweller version out on the Android market and on the homepage. The localization effort I've been posting about elsewhere in this newsgroup took way longer than expected and it's not finished yet. The current version has support for English and slightly wacky Swedish. I need to work a bit more on the formatting and syntax but I'll get there eventually.

Besides the localization support a couple of new features are in as well:

NEW FEATURES

Trap doors that will make you fall to the level below

Added action buttons on the map UI for touchscreen devices to simplify targeting and menu access

Removed the statusbar at the bottom of the map UI and added proper unit frames for the player and the current target

CHANGES

The merchant's inventory should get pruned and updated in a better way

Fog of war ghosts of monsters have been removed. They were more of a nuisance than a help.

BUG FIXES

Potions can no longer become enchanted by the world generator when generated from a predefined spawn point

Saved games are no longer deleted when loaded at startup. The save game is kept until the game is ended to reduce the risk of losing a game to an application crash

Monday, September 13, 2010

As a part of my effort to have a new release ready for the ARRP I'm currently adding localization support to Dweller. I'm aware that this is a "nice to have" feature, and by no means a requirement. I still do this now for two reasons:

Dweller runs on Android handsets and that exposes the game to players from all around the world. Players who would normally not play a roguelike and who are more likely to do so if they can play it in their own language.

The effort required to make the game localizable increases for every feature I add, for every item, monster, spell and so on. The longer I wait the harder it will be. Once in place it will add a slight overhead each time I add more text/content, but that is acceptable.

My main concern now is how to actually get the game translated to more languages than English and Swedish. I have received offers to help out with localization that I will pick up on, but still, I need to make sure I cover all the big languages. So, if you are able to translate English into Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin), Portoguese, Russian, German, French, Italian or any other language and you are willing to help bring Dweller to your native language please drop me a line!

A few days ago Apple announced that they have removed the restriction on 3rd-party development tools for creating applications for iOS devices! This is great news for someone like me who works with Flash and Actionscript all day long. It also means that I should start considering a new cross platform game project targeted at Android, iOs and desktops. Right now focus is on the ARRP though...

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

I've been quite busy at work lately with a bunch of deadlines creeping up on me while I at the same time temporarily have taken over management of one of our dev teams... Still, progress is made on Dweller and I think you will enjoy the upcoming changes!

My goal is to release a new Dweller version for the ARRP (Annual Roguelike Release Party) on September 19th. Some of the highlights of the upcoming release:

An actionbar will be present while moving around on the map. From the action bar you will be able to quickly fire missiles, use spells or wands, access the inventory and so on. The actionbar will only be visible on touchscreen devices ofcourse.

New player and monster "unit frames" showing the essential information about the monster you are fighting

Named/unique monsters with themed names (ex Lughdush for an Orc, Vilefang for a Spide) as well as themed artifact names.

Language support. Soon you will be able to play in your own language (as long as you help me with translations :-) )

Dweller

Dweller is a fantasy roguelike for Java enabled cellphones. A version for desktop computers also exist, but the main focus of development is for mobile platforms. Dweller is designed to run on any MIDP2 or Android OS 1.5+ enabled handset.

Dweller is free to download and play, but it is also a one-man effort to bring a full featured roguelike to cellphones and other mobile devices. If you like the game please consider sending a donation: